Containers, as described herein, include, for example, bottles, cans, tubes, pouches, being made from metal, glass and/or plastic. Such containers include PET bottles and other packaging elements, in particular those that are suitable for the filling of liquid or viscous products, and containers already combined into groups, i.e. multipack groups of containers.
Such containers have a contact region that is executed in a spherically arched manner. Because of the shape of this contact region, containers can roll off against one another around a peripheral path, i.e. at a “roll-off ring.” With glass bottles that have been used many times, this can be seen, for example, from the wear ring that is usually recognizable in bright accentuation. In the case of PET bottles such “roll-off rings” can be arranged not only in the head region but in the foot region also.
It is known that containers such as glass bottles or PET bottles are capped after filling and then provided with one or more labels. To this end, one or more individual labels are, for example, applied to the container with an adhesive as shown, for example, in DE 40 13 938 or DE 197 12 193. It is also known for the container to be fully enveloped with a label sleeve, which is often called a roll feed label. DE 201 10 763 discloses such a sleeve labeler in which the sleeve label is taken from a storage roll, cut to a suitable length, and then stretched and pulled over the bottle. The length of sleeve then contracts so that the sleeve label sits tightly against the surface of the bottle.
The roll feed method and such an apparatus are known from DE 102 43 701. The bottle is wrapped in a label whose beginning is stuck to the container and whose end is stuck to the label's beginning.
Especially for the application of a plurality of individual labels to a bottle, it is known for the bottle to be aligned on the labeling device such that, for example, the belly and breast label, or the decorative image on the cap, are disposed in a defined position relative to one another. The bottles that are labeled in this way are often subsequently combined on packaging machines to form bundles. In particular, a group of bottles or containers, often four or six individual bottles, are wrapped in a film that is then shrunk to provide a stable sales unit.
In detail, the production of the bundles is effected e.g. in the manner that the containers are fed standing on a transport plane of a transporter and with their container axes oriented in vertical or essentially vertical direction in a bulk transport or in a wide container stream in which the containers are randomly oriented such that their distinctive container features and/or furnishing features can face any direction. This wide container stream is then converted into a plurality of single-track container streams by passageway division. The compartmenting of the containers that form the subsequent bundles or their container groups from the single-track container streams, the bringing together of the necessary number of containers to form a compacted container group in which the containers lie against one another by a plurality of envelope or peripheral surfaces, i.e. by the contact or touching surfaces, and the connecting of the containers of each container group to form the compact and firm as well as stable bundle, are carried out in further process steps.
The combining or forming of a plurality of articles into a group of articles and from the groups of articles to produce firm and/or transportable storage and transport units or bundles using shrink films (e.g., as described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,726,464) is known to the skilled person. One of the disadvantages of known methods is that the films used, and in particular the shrinking-on of the films by the application of heat or energy, causes considerable expense.
It has also already been proposed to produce transportable bundles by the containers that are formed to a container group being packed, i.e. connected together into a bundle, by a strapping that encompasses the container group in the manner of a loop (DE 10 2009 025 824, DE 10 2009 044 271, and DE 41 26 212), this constituting a particularly inexpensive and simple way of producing bundles or transport and storage units. The strapping can also be bonded with the containers.
One disadvantage of strapping, however, is that when one container is first removed from such a bundle, the remaining containers are no longer held together by the strapping. This is the case not only when the strapping is removed or cut but also when a container is removed from the bundle without severing the strapping.
Moreover transporting such bundles on a belt conveyor always presents the danger that cylindrical or chiefly cylindrical articles, such as cans, bottles or containers, assume a nesting position, i.e. slip into a gap in the adjacent row, due to vibration, impacts etc. With known bundles, a very high tension must be applied to the strapping in order to avoid this.
DE 10 2006 037 105, on the other hand, relates to a method for the combining of bottle packets in which a rotary star wheel that presses bottle necks into clips on flat carriers is provided on both sides of a track. The bottle packet is also wrapped with a tape or an envelope, which acts as a film.
According to DE 23 31 193, an adhesive is applied to containers in narrow surfaces or rows, with contiguous surfaces that are not provided with adhesive being intended to enable one to grip and carry the package. The containers stick to one another at the adhesive points. EP 2 096 039 also relates to containers being provided with an adhesive, with a shrink film also being disposed around the bottle packet however.